Question Identify Murdock’s four functions of the family

Answer Sexual Reproductive Economic Educational

Question What conclusion about the family did Murdock come to in 1940s?

Answer The family is inevitable and universal and is found in all societies

Question Identify one aspect of family life functionalists ignore

Answer Alternative households Problems with families Too idealistic Exploitation of women Violence within the home

Question How do Marxists view the family?

Answer The family is a tool of capitalism which allows the ruling-class to exploit the working class

Question How did Engels view the family?

Answer It had an economic function allowing the ruling-class to pass their wealth from one generation to the next.

Question How did Althusser view the function of the family?

Answer that in order for capitalism to survive people must be taught how to think and behave, and the family (as well as schools and the mass media) was the best mechanism for doing this

Question What are the two main functions of the family for Parsons?

Answer primary socialisation of children stabilisation of adult personalities

Question What is Parson’s sexual division of labour?

Answer Within the isolated nuclear family members are allocated particular roles (role allocation) in order for it function correctly: Men have instrumental role Women have expressive role

Question Identify and explain Parsons’ ‘isolated nuclear family’

Answer Parson’s identified the families in modern industrial society as being isolated because it’s not connected to wider kinship relations. The isolated nuclear family is freed from the obligations of wider kin and therefore is better able to adapt to the requirements of modern industrial society – such as moving around the country looking for work